In the year 2005, the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, launched a reform-led national investment program aimed at developing cities in India through strategic infrastructure investments titled Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In order to respond to the emerging needs of capacity building through cross learning and knowledge exchange between JNNURM cities, the PEARL (Peer Exchange and Reflective Learning) program was initiated in 2007. NIUA was designated as the national coordinator for the PEARL program.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the PEARL program is to enhance knowledge exchange and cross learning between JNNURM cities through creation of manageable networks by peer grouping.

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK SUPPORT UNIT The Cities Alliance supported Knowledge Support for PEARL was initiated in the year 2010 to strengthen the horizontal learning network through strategic support in terms of accessing knowledge needs of cities, provide inputs in designing knowledge exchange initiatives in terms of concept notes, program briefs, etc, and finally, plugging PEARL to other national and international knowledge exchange networks to access their expertise in knowledge sharing and exchange.Created in 1999, Cities Alliance is a global partnership for urban poverty reduction and the promotion of the role of cities in sustainable development with overall strategic objectives to support cities in providing effective local government, an active citizenship and an economy characterized by both public and private investment.

About PeArl

HappyStreetS

Car free movements have sprung all over the world in the last decade as com-munities and citizen networks look to reclaim streets from clogging cars back to human activities. New York, Toronto, Seoul, Moscow, Hong Kong

and Tokyo are some of the cities that have understood the vital importance of streets as public spaces that can be adapted for activities for people by promoting car free days for pedestrians and bicyclists. In India too, local activism has combined with city support and public engagement to provide momentum to green street networks for non motorized mobility.The session was organized as a panel dis-cussion to explore the success of these programs and challengesfor replication and sustainability. Two case studies,Gurgaon’s Raahgiri Day and Diu’s dedicated cycle path were discussed. Amit Bhatt from Embarq and Anuj Malhotra from Centre For Green Mobility were the speakers and the discussion intended to address the follow-ing topics.

• Implications of Non Motorized transport for local city mobility strategy• Forming stakeholders across local authorities, communities civil society

organization, media and political parties and building momentum to reclaim streets

• Best Practices and lessons from international and national cases• Way forward for the Indian cities

The inaugural session in The niua Dialogue series was baseD on

communiTy use of sTreeTsanD was TiTleD “happy sTreeTs

- reclaiming/realigning/reengineering/Transforming

sTreeTs for communiTies”.

raahgiri Day - Amit Bhatt, Embarq Amit Bhatt is Strategy Head for Urban Transport at EMBARQ, India. Amit is based in New Delhi and leads the work around BRT projects and city bus services in Surat, Indore, Jaipur and Bangalore; urban transport projects in Naya Raipur; restructuring the auto-rickshaw sector in Rajkot; and developing public bicycling scheme in Jaipur. Amit has lead the Raahgiri Day on behalf of EMBARQ India, which is one of the founding partners to the large consortium involved in this movement. Organizations and activists of Gurgaon have come together to execute this novel concept, in a quest to make Gurgaon accessible for its residents and encourage the use of cycling, walking and public transport in the city. The idea was adopted from Cyclovia event in Bogota, Columbia and is voiced as India’s first sustained car-free day. Raahgiri Day is a weekly street event which provides citizens with the opportunity to reclaim their streets, connect with their community, celebrate their city and therefore reclaim their lives; promoting health, well being, fitness, togetherness and joy. Cities like Navi Mumbai and Ludhiana have already started replicating this day and encouraging happy streets.

Amit spoke about the evolution of Raahgiri Day since its inception in 2013. The event is modeled on Ciclovía, an event that began in Bogota, Colombia in 1976. During Ciclovia, streets are closed to cars and instead opened for the exclusive use of people for running, cycling, skating, or other recreational activities. It is a concept adopted by several cities around the world. Gurgaon is the first and only city in India to hold this event. Launched in November 2013, over 2,00,000 people have participated in this event since then and is now a weekly event held every Sunday. Raahgiri Day is organized by a team of NGOs and citizens’ groups. The NGOs associated with the event are Peddal Yatri, India Cycle Service, EMBARQ India, I am Gurgaon and Road Safety Officers

crosswalk lab and Diu cycling infrastructure - Anuj Malhotra, Centre for Green Mobility Anuj Malhotra is the Executive Director at Centre for Green Mobility in Ahmedabad. The Center for Green

speakers anD presenTaTions

“Amit is bAsed in delhi And leAds the work Around brt Projects And city bus services in surAt, indore,

jAiPur And bAngAlore; urbAn trAnsPort Projects in nAyA rAiPur; restructuring the Auto-rickshAw sector in rAjkot; And develoPing A Public bicycling scheme in jAiPur.”

“Anuj is heAding the centre for green mobility in AhmedAbAd, which

is working in cities of gujArAt, rAjAsthAn And mAdhyA PrAdesh on

imPlementing the cycle shAring system And tAking uP lArge scAle

nmt imProvements.”

Amit BhattStrategy Head – Urban Transport, EMBARQ India

Anuj MalhotraExecutive Director,

Centre for Green Mobility

Mobility is working in the cities of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh on implementing the Cycle Sharing System and taking up large scale NMT improvements.

Anuj began his presentation with a brief discussion about the Crosswalk Lab that has been initiated in Ahmedabad to address pedestrian safety and vehicular movement conflicts through intersection design. The impact though preliminary has been seen in higher pedestrian safety at intersections, reduced turning speeds, safety for bicyclists and improvement in traffic flow.

Anuj then shared his experience of creating in partnership with DIU administration, India’s first dedicated cycle track at Diu - a 4.3 km long stretch for the people and tourists of the city. Centre for Green Mobility is providing handholding and technical support for creating cycling infrastructure for the whole island of Diu. The track will provide the citizens of Diu a chance to enjoy the serenity of the island and a safe zone to be able to use it for daily commute. The inauguration of the track was marked by a cycle rally on 3rd August, 2014 with an overwhelming participation of around 300 cyclists to promote green mobility, sustainable and healthy living.

Discussions anD

The presentations were followed by discussions between the speakers and the audience. The issues raised were about need for good design and implementation follow-up on the design to achieve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Cost considerations could not dictate the need for superior materials during design and construction given that economic benefits in reduced transportation emission, improved mobility options and recreational experience of the waterfront outweigh any investments. The importance of network connectivity to increase pedestrian and bicycling experience was highlighted. Similar importance needs to be given to social amenities such as drinking water and toilets.

The audience felt both case studies also highlighted the democratic values hidden in pedestrian and bicycling modes and could provide the necessary momentum for reclaiming streets and roads for non motorized modes.

QA

MAKING BANGALORE

SMART

“Smart cities” is the new ‘buzzword’ in the urban development paradigm. A ‘smart city’ is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall

infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents. There are many technological platforms involved, including but not limited to automated sensor networks and data centres.

The Government of India has recently announced implementation of smart city concept in 100 cities across the nation. Amidst such ambitious announcements, however, there still seems to be no definite definition for this, clearly overused, term. Much is talked about the technical knowhow of the smart city but the crux lies in involving citizens into the system without which it is bound not to work. As a matter of fact the concept of it is well discussed but less understood by scholars as well as practitioners in the developing nations, not to mention in India. Thus the third NIUA dialogue series intends to discuss how the ‘smart’ element could be imbibed into the Indian city making, how it could be relevant to the way

in The seconD session of niua Dialogue series The panel Discussion

nameD “making bangalore smarT” was baseD on The

inTegraTion of Technology inTo urban DevelopmenT.

Indian cities are looked at.The session was organized as a panel discussion to explore some of the individual initiatives that is gradually bringing about change in the system the Indian cities function and could be exemplary for other cities to follow. The case study taken was ICT based crowd sourcing development engines like Mapunity co-founded by Dr. Ashwin Mahesh. Dr. Mahesh, a technologist and public policy researcher from Bangalore was the speaker invited to elaborate on the issue and address the following topics in the session chaired by Prof. Jagan Shah, Director of the institute.

• Creating citizen friendly database.• Using database which are already existing (e.g. data

retrieved from private mobile network providers) for the purpose of ‘smart’ technology based urban development.

• Creating user friendly interface for public services like transportation system (Direction based bus services).

• Creating integrated, transparent information system that is accessible to citizens.

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh is an Indian politician, social technologist, former astronomer, former NASA scientist and a leader of LokSatta Party. He is the Karnataka State party president and member of the National Steering Committee of the Lok Satta Party. He is also the founder member of Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC). Adjunct faculty at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Public Policy professor at IIM-B, and urban research strategist at the office of Urban Affairs for the Karnataka government. Ashwin has been director of GIS at E-governments Foundation and was previously a research faculty at NASA Goddard Earth Science and Technology Centre, USA.

SpeakerS and preSentationS

Dr. Mahesh talked about how mapping could be used to disseminate useful information that citizens require in their every day walk of life in the city. He co-founder of Mapunity, an online crowd-sourcing company explained how the search engine dedicatedly seeks ICT based solutions to urban issues such as real time traffic monitoring (BTIS or The Bangalore Traffic Information System) and also provides a citizens platform to discuss governance issues. Mapunity helped put up the first online citizens’ governance forum for an Indian city - The Bangalore Governance Observatory.

He explained through his presentation how the Bangalore Transport Information System works, how existing information retrieved from mobile network providers could be used to manage traffic flow in the city by marking traffic hot spots. Dr. Mahesh insisted that the problem lies in the fact that most often we fail to see the problem and this is where mapping could help. He elaborated on how maps could help us have a visual status of what goes on in the city at a given point of time. By bringing all these information together from the systems which are already existing (e.g. Bus, Metro routes and timings, Vehicle records, License records, Police cameras, GPS units on traffic junctions) a database could be created to achieve better service delivery in urban areas or in the ‘Smart’ city per se.

On the issue of governance, Dr. Mahesh had the view that citizens should be given some responsibility in making the city work as that would bring out a sense of being a stakeholder of the system, a true sense of belonging to contribute in making the city work better. This would also help in reducing the expectations on the citizen’s part that all the services are to be provided by the public systems and they have no responsibility in it. He explained how involving traffic police men (and not It technicians) in the traffic management system in Bangalore culminated into India’s first Traffic Management Centre. On the concluding note, Dr. Mahesh, who believes “…a smart city is one in which citizens are co-managers of the city along with public officials…” advocated for citizen’s participation to be pivotal in making a smart city work successfully.

“A smArt city is one in which citizens

Are co-mAnAgers of the city Along with

Public officiAls”

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh

diScuSSionS and QAThe presentation concluded with intriguing questions from the audience followed by thoughtful discussions with the speaker. What the role and scope of participation of citizens could be in the governance system was a query to which Dr. Mahesh replied that it was a contingent responsibility of people who had better scope of intervening into the system and open doors for others who were concerned. We must acknowledge that a small set of people would do the bulk of the enabling techno-logical interventions but others must take the work forward built on that. Data increases the capacity to represent the prob-lem. Information should be carried forward to help into public policy making. Basic services (water supply, valve monitoring, and depth of water table) that are provided by the government could be augmented and service delivery could be improved with the use of mapping. There is limit to what all could be done with purely voluntarily generated citizen data but when it is coupled with the government system data it could do a lot. The government has to come up with a regulatory mechanism for data that are to be fed to the smart city initiative system. The risks of sharing data on a public domain for welfare of the

city are to confronted in meaningful ways rather than let those go unacknowledged. The multiple facets of the smart city in making are to be dealt with interval capacity building and not entirely by depending on the private players. Certain systems could only improve if people allowed themselves to be tracked. If the asymmetry of power in information is removed the solu-tions become much more honest and correct. There should be provision for allocation of funds at the granular level which is to be used by the local bodies. With that smartness could be achieved much easier. Inclusivity in smart cities in the context of Indian economy with explicit rich and poor divide is a chal-lenge that smart cities would need to face in the near future. Land needs to be opened for uses like housing and job creation; preventing farmers from selling their land is not the only way to protect them. Citizen’s participation is a way to challenge the government’s strategies which are not helping much in sectors like housing and education. The session proved to be an eye opener to many aspects of smart city governance, a smart city that is run by its citizens.

learning cities

With the central government’s agenda for developing 100 smart cities, it is more important now than ever to reflect on prioritising the needs of urban India

and interweaving them with the various aspects of smart city development. The changing economic and policy environments through the turn of the century have resulted in rapid urbanisation and a host of challenges plaguing Indian cities such as inadequate housing and increasing slums, low quality public services, inefficient city transport, high level of water and air pollution and consequential environmental degradation, shrinking green areas and unsustainable city sprawl. Use of newer technologies and services presently available can be deployed for revitalising the city and providing a higher quality of life. Each Indian city is gearing up in its own way for this. At this juncture, fostering knowledge exchange amongst the Indian cities and the global city networks is therefore an important need of the hour.Tim Campbell’s recent book Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn and Innovate (Earthscan, Feb 2012) focuses on understanding how the world’s cities actually learn, internally, and just as important, from each other through a city-to-city exchange in policy and practice. His claim that this may

The ThirD Dialogue in The series TiTleD ‘learning ciTies’ was a Talk by Dr Tim campbell from The

urban age insTiTuTe ThaT elaboraTeD The processes involveD anD benefiTs

of learning Through knowleDge exchange for ciTies.

hold promise for some global issues and many local issues of global significance is of substantial importance in the present Indian context. Dr Campbell advocates that smart cities need to go beyond technological innovations for improved service delivery but need to aim for what Lewis Mumford called the supreme achievement of civilization. Dr. Campbell considers learning from cities which involves talking to the city people (mayors, city representatives, civil societies and resident groups) as the most important aspect of his experience over the last few decades. He highlights three major inferences from these city-encounters as below:

• Cities themselves are the primary source of innova-tions for other cities around the world. Additionally, cities are constantly on a prowl for learning of new ideas and exchanging ideas.

• Cities around the world are creating solutions to global problems (eg climate change) in learning from cities.

• Cities as a collective and federations of cities for regional and international policies would be considered extremely important than ever before.

world. Dr. Campbell is of the opinion that recognition of the rise of this new economic activity promises a wider scope for improvements in terms of designing and delivering of the learning process. The city survey and interviews conducted by Dr Campbell have shown that most of the cities are aware of the reasons for visiting other cities as also which cities they would be interested in for future visits with reasons. This reflects the recognition of the different sectors in individual cities for improvements through learnings from other cities experiences. World conferences and congresses further provide the required platform for understanding the range of initiatives undertaken by various cities across the globe and thereby initiate the process of knowledge exchange.

Dr. Campbell further elaborated the key findings from his study. His studies categorise cities into two groups: reformer cities and informant cities. The four important aspects that classify cities as reformers were:

1. these cities had formalised knowledge exchange;2. these cities had created clouds of trust not just within the

city but with other cities, civil societies, etc; 3. these cities had distinct styles of learning; and, 4. Were engaged in a continuous processes of learning.Dr Campbell also elaborated on his concept of ‘Clouds of Trust’ that he indicates exists in each city and is responsible majorly for taking important decisions for the development of the city. Studies have shown that these clouds of trust could include anyone from elected representatives, directors of various government departments, major industrialists, eminent persons, academicians, etc. In some cities, either these clouds of trust could be interlinked for each department or could be isolated.

With respect to Smart Cities, Dr Campbell felt that with technological predominance, smartness can be indicated as ‘’the internet of everything’’ and would include the use of smart phones, sensors, cameras, etc in urban services. He concluded with some significant ideas that formed the takeaway for the day:

1. Cities are constantly in the process of engaging with other cities for improved living. Understanding the processes involved is important for improvements.

2. Cities through knowledge exchange are establishing a trans-national wedge.

3. Continuous learning is an essential aspect for all cities.

“urbAn Age institute works to foster leAdershiP And innovAtion between And Among cities in AreAs of

strAtegic urbAn PlAnning, urbAn Policy, Public sector mAnAgement, sustAinAble environmentAl PlAnning And Poverty reduction.”

Tim CampbellUrban Age Institute

With liberalised trade regimes, cities are required to compete and prepare themselves to attract investments for changed business environments. Every global investor considers cities equipped with necessary redressal mechanisms, right talents, skills, credit options, logistics, and so on as crucial for ensuring the appropriate business environment. With decentralisation, cities across the world have decision making powers entrusted with the city governments. In turn, city governments have to ensure that the cities deliver more than they have ever done before. Also, they have the powers to prioritise expenditures for specific sectors for development. Getting clues from best practices and knowledge exchange with other cities provides most effective solutions. This boost in the knowledge exchange industry has resulted in increased travel across the world to primarily million sized cities as they offer the best cases, are capable of grasping specific problems and comprehend learnings. Learning from other cities and adopting successful innovations and ideas also provides as an accelerated method for initiating effective change especially for elected representatives who have a load of issues to address and limited time to prove their capabilities. Studies conducted by Dr. Tim Campbell have precisely been able to highlight this aspect of city to city learning. According to the studies conducted, every year each million sized city visits at least 4 to 5 cities for specific learnings for each governmental department. With at least 15 such departments in each of the 1000 odd million plus cities, approximately 10,000 visits every year are undertaken giving rise to a huge underground economy of knowledge exchange around the

speakers anD presenTaTions

The talk was followed by discussions between Dr Campbell and the audience. Some of the significant points discussed included:

1. Most of the cities and countries have already achieved minimum standards of living and hence there is a slight imbalance between where we are and the cities we visit to learn. To upgrade to smart services, the Indian cities may need to consider an integrated approach with use of tools for upgrading infrastructure and service delivery. With existing human resources capacity and talents, there is a scope for successful integration.

2. The people participating in the city visits for knowledge exchange are not just city officials or technicians but a multidisciplinary group consisting of private sector, elected representatives, civil society. Specific visits are also designed for technology, effective governance, etc which target collective learning and consider institutional as well as individual learning equally important.

3. It is crucial to interweave the private sector for successfully implementing smart city initiatives.

Discussions anD QA

CONSERVINGOURIDENTITIESCITIES AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION

The Heritage based urban development is a young field of research and practice. Indian urban planning methods in the past did not give due consideration to the rich urban

heritage of India. The National Urban Renewal Mission in the 2000s, as one of the first efforts, requested the cities to integrate heritage studies and planning in the City Development Plan. The master plans or the city development plans have started talking about heritage conservation very recently only. In the light of the high relevance and need of heritage-based urban development today, the NIUA themed the fourth of its dialogue series on Cities and Heritage Conservation. The session was titled “Conserving our Identities”. The session intended to highlight various aspects of a sustainable urban development based on the conservation of indigenous heritage.

The session was organized as a panel discussion to explore

The fourTh Dialogue in The series TiTleD ‘conserving our iDenTiTies’ inTenDeD

To highlighT various aspecTs of susTainable urban DevelopmenT

baseD on The conservaTion of inDigenous heriTage.

some of the conservation initiatives in the realm of urban renewal that have become successful in the face of long standing negligence toward the heritage amidst which we live in. The case study taken was conservation projects in the heart of Delhi, at Humayun’s tomb, Sunder nursery and Nizamuddin Basti pioneered by the AKTC. The speaker invited to elaborate on the issue was eminent architect-conservationist Mr. Ratish Nanda credited for leading the AKTC projects. The following issues were issued during the session.

• Significance of synergy between heritage conservation and development as a process.

• Issues with creating awareness about heritage.• Technical issues of conservation projects.• Positive impacts of conservation projects on socio-econom-

ic development.

Today, the basti has schools, internet centre, a health centre and a lady’s park! To reach out to those who cannot have access to the schools or the internet centres, computer kiosks with internet facility were installed. What was interesting here was the fact that the health centre attracted patients from all over the city. It is outstanding to witness how the clinic has reached out to people beyond the boundaries of the bastiit is also to be noted that the schools became centres of all the activities which encouraged parents to send their kids to schools. The lady’s park became the only place where the otherwise conservative muslim women would gather and interact. At the beginning of the initiative the residents had pointed out that solid waste was the most critical of the problems they were facing. All these underlying outcomes of the renewal initiative which had its share of criticism for being a mere ‘beautification’ project, makes the essence of how development and conservation goes hand in hand. The success of the programme thus also lies in the fact that today the locality is in a much better condition than it was before. It’s a better quality of life that was envisioned at the inception of the project and it has done exactly that for the people of the basti. Housing, basic infrastructure and social infrastructure were all taken into account in the renewal project which helped make it a success.

At the Humayun’s tomb the AKTC restored several parts of the structure. To get the monument back into shape the conservation team followed evidence from old patterns that were remaining on the walls of the tomb. The team is now engaged in restoring the Sunder nursery which is going to house a large amount of flora and fauna at the heart of the city. Ar. Nanda also talked about the “Bagh-e-Babur” park restoration in Kabul which was again, much criticized for being a beautification project where people seemingly were more in need of basic infrastructure. Interestingly the garden restoration project provided health, education, sanitation and other benefits to the two million people residing around it.

On the end note, the speaker emphasized on the fact that the renewal projects are in much need to be looked at more than beautification projects, that cultural heritage is as important to be managed as the other critical urban issues such as access to safe drinking water and sanitation. These programmes could in turn become vehicles of change in our urban fabric which we most often give a blind eye to. Instead of constructing walls or other physical barriers around urban blighted areas, it is important to go for adaptive reuse of the old structure of cultural heritage which are about fifteen thousand in number in India.

“conservAtion And develoPment must be PArts

of the sAme Project...”

Speaker Ratish Nanda is best known for being at the forefront of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) conservation project of Humayun’s Tomb New Delhi, a trained architect and conservationist, Nanda devoted his professional tenure to the extensive mapping and restoration of valuable and endangered heritage structures in India and abroad, including the Bagh-e-Babur in Kabul. Since 2007, Nanda has been pioneering the Urban Renewal Initiative project in central Delhi’s historic Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. Besides restoring dozens of medieval-era monuments in the area, AKTC’s venture (in partnership with government agencies) aims to lift the living standards of neighbourhoods around the monuments. Nanda has also been associated with INTACH, Delhi Chapter and has been a member of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) (2008–11). He was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2007. In his crisp and concise presentation Ar. Nanda focused on the ‘urban renewal’ context of the project. He described how the multi-disciplinary team of AKTC managed to revive historic buildings/precincts in the city which go unnoticed in the dense urban fabric of mega cities like Delhi. He points out that the historic buildings are encroached in numerous ways. There are ‘Baoli’s which had residential structure constructed on top of it, water tanks which were hidden behind structures constructed around it over a period of time and hence silted with huge amount of substances, sometimes so much so that it required 8000 man days of work to de-silt the tank. He explained how after several dialogues (as many as 200 in number) the local people of the ‘Basti’ around the historic Hazrat Nizamuddin co-operated with the conservation initiative.

The biggest achievement as Ar. Nanda put it was the upliftment of living conditions of the local people. One of the first interventions of the AKTC project was setting up a health centre in the neighbourhood. As part of the project the AKTC team trained nurses, educators in the basti. These were all young people from the basti itself. Thus capacity building became a major focus of the project. Nanda insists that “conservation and development should be part of the same project…”. All of this took many years to achieve, the project started around 2007.

Ratish NandaAga Khan Trust forCulture (AKTC)

speakers anD presenTaTions

Discussions anD QAThe session was thought provoking and evoked some very relevant queries from the listeners. What would happen to the people who were relocated was a concern that had the interesting revelation that the group operating with solid waste col-lection was not people from the basti but a private contractor’s group. Hence the programmme did not result into loss of livelihood of the local community and the waste treatment is not better managed in the area. Ar. Nanda gave insight to the coordination between the AKTC and the Government bodies. In these kinds of initiatives the assistance provided by public bodies was something difficult to get because of bureaucratic issues.

Culture is an asset that can be used to improve quality of life like other means of doing so. Rather than looking at heritage as individual monuments, there is an ardent need of looking at them as a part of our urban setting like it has been looked at, at many countries in the west which are at the same time highly developed. The case studies presented reestablished the need to look at our heritage as a part of the growth process of cities.

Open DataFor Effective Planning

Open data is a relatively new area for which awareness has to be created amongst masses. “Open data” by nomenclature means access to data free of cost with a

bar of copyright for use, reuse and redistribution. Open data in the context of urban development opens doors to citizens and facilitates transparency to multiple degrees.Keeping that in mind the fifth in the NIUA Dialogue series was arranged as a talk by Dr. Neeta Verma, Deputy Director

“open DaTa for effecTive planning”

was The fifTh in series of The niua Dialogues.

General, National Informatics Centre. Dr. Verma with the help of her presentation ran the audience through various facets of open data and the possibilities it has to offer. Some of the focal points of discussion in the session were:• Understanding the concept of Open Data• Technical know-how of operating Open data• Scope of open data to be used in planning and development

sector

available to the public for their use with stringent rules to prevent misuse of it; making it accessible to academicians, researchers and self learners and providing a higher degree of transparency within the government. This could dramatically change the research scenario in the country. Opening up of government data would also open doors for international funding agencies like the World Bank or OECD to have better understanding of the sectors in different countries that need financial help. On having a common platform of shared data from different governments, these organizations would have better clarity and could avoid concentration of funding in one particular geographical region or sector. Similarly the various research institutes and academic institutions could also make available their research findings for government use. The revolution in the field of open data started around 2009 and by 2014 various researches carried out identified potential sources for providing raw data for public use.

These are various positive outcomes of opening up raw data in context to the government. Opening up of data it increases transparency and accountability and thus increases greater scope of public participation. Citizens have shown great enthusiasm in the open data movement. The dynamics of development would change if government data is accessible because the prevalent problem of work progressing slowly for not having data would not exist. Open data also holds a vast scope of improvement in the education sector. It helps connect the prospective student to the best fitted courses, helps in transparent education financing and efficient system administration to mention a few. The example of Arizona State University, USA shows that the rate of graduating students has increased from 64% to 75% after opening of the university database.

In case of transportation, infrastructure planning and fleet management would become much easier with access to government traffic data. In New Jersey, USA with the help of passenger flow data various smart phone applications have been developed to help passengers save on commuting time by six minutes on an average. New York city council is one of the pioneers of open data movement with the release of the city’s energy consumption data for every building in the city. This has helped indentify the drawbacks in their present energy consumption patterns and has helped them formulate new strategies for reducing consumption resulting into 18% less consumption. Health care although raises issues of privacy could make use of data published by hospitals and medical clinics specially for generating awareness.

Open data has a significant impact on economy. By making tax collection data available on public domain a lot of tax revenue could be generated. All these issues might require some amendments to the law and order but could make the functioning of government much easier and lucid to the citizens. Challenges for capturing and processing big data include analysis, capture, curation, search, share, store, transfer, visualize and protect from privacy violations. There are various facets to big data. The four ‘V’s of big data are Volume, Variety, Veracity and Velocity. Open data needs to be used in innovative ways to make the most out of it. There has to be a workable business model which would have Data Analytics, Language technology, Web Technology, Interface design etc. With easy

Dr. Neeta Verma presently holds the position of the Deputy Director, National Informatics Centre. She has contributed widely in setting up the Government of India’s online services. Throughout her career she has helped in creating numerous government websites, portals and E-governance applications. Her most significant professional endeavour could be assisting in setting up the National Portal of India www.india.gov.in.Dr. Verma through her presentation described that the concept of open data was brought to us by the inventor the World Wide Web, Mr. Tim Berners-Lee when Lee decided to take a step forward by ideating the opening up of raw data for access on the public domain. The challenges of having HTML pages which is fundamental for any page on the WWW (World Wide Web) format is the constraint of difficulty in extracting data from the web pages. The reason why Google is flourishing is the simple facts that it enables the user find the most relevant data from the web. Another constraint is the demand-supply gap. The speed at which the gamut of information technology has progressed is phenomenal and the HTML (Hyper Text Marker Language) has to be tailor made to best provide the service for its users. The inherent challenge in the HTML language has affected the way WWW has been used so far.

Quality data becomes fundamental for policy making which leads to the development of the country. Government by its very nature collects, compiles and possesses large amount of primary data for different purposes. This includes Census data, socio-economic data, various indicators, market prices, crime surveys to name a few. Once the government agencies complete their reports, their data repository could be made

Dr Neeta VermaDeputy Director General NIC

speakers anD presenTaTions

“government data available for perSonal or commercial uSe, HaS

immenSe potential to increaSe tHe quality of

life for communitieS, buSineSSeS, and

government alike”

access to data, different apps could be generated depending on the requirement. Every data has a market and target user of its own, that needs to be addressed innovatively.

The GoI has a National Data Sharing & Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). The key stakeholders are Department of Science & Technology (DST - Serves the nodal functions of coordination and monitoring of policy), Department of Electronics & IT (DeitY - Issue detailed implementation guidelines including the technology and standards for data and metadata), National Informatics Centre (Establish Data Portal India - data.gov.in, facilitates identification & publishing of datasets in Consultation with Data Controllers), Ministry/ Departments/States (Nominate Nodal Officer as Data Controller, Contribute datasets in Open Format, Manage their Open Data Programme). The implementation strategy is structured in four stages: Appointing data controllers; forming NDSAP cell; following Data formats, Metadata schema, and guidelines; organizing workshops and seminars that involve the stakeholders. There is scope for the user to rate the data depending on the level of ease with which it could be accessed. This could help the next person in seeking the best accurate data (s)he is looking for.

Getting the data is easier than promoting the data to be used. For this software developers and analysts are needed who would make the data user friendly. Apart from Hackathons, on line communities are formed which provides an online platform for discussion and collaboration. Attractive graphics and precise

The presentation ended with a discussion over issues raised by the audience. Whether there is a specific format provided by the government to put data on the open platform was one of the concerns. Dr. Verma informed that data could be made open only on specific portals and the technology part of it is handled by the NIC on behalf of the agency that wants to make their data open. On enquiring about availability of geo-spatial data, The Dept. of Science and Technology, GoI has recently formed a task force to look into the various issues regarding geo-spatial data. Right to information mandate is now trying to bring the municipal corporations within its purview. The state governments have to take a lead in this regard. The smart city concept and the central governments mandate of making 100 cities smart would provide the required stimulus for speeding the process. Policies for sharing data need to be worked out like in the case of NREGA website which is so far the most frequently updated government website. On being asked what worked well in trying to convince the agencies to open their data, Dr.Verma said that non controversial data is easiest to get and then some applications are prepared through Hackathons to show the agencies what they could achieved if they shared their data. This makes room for new ideas and motivates the agencies. The audience enquired whether there was uniformity in the kind of data received from state agencies. To this, Dr.Verma replied that there were two aspects of uniformity, one is the format of the data shared and the other

data representations are useful to promote use of open data. The GoI portal is publishing one data visualization or Infographics everyday on their portal to reach out to new users. Using data from different departments and making applications to use it is the challenge. Hackathon, Codathon, Code for the country are some of the programmes that are trying to facilitate young professional in developing new applications.

Open data in context to smart cities is very relevant where in the collective intelligence of the city would require to be to be leveraged alongwith an integration of human resources, natural resources and IT resources. Smart cities require smart energy, smart buildings, smart water, smart public services, smart mobility, and smart integration of technology into everything. Different software giants have prepared their own smart city frameworks. These work in various layers. The sectors that are to be stressed upon are energy and water, transportation, public safety, education, health and governance services, tourism and culture. The four major technologies that are going to play the key role in the smart city mechanism are mobility, cloud, big data and the social media. Various cities around the world have started making use of these technologies.

Open data is an enabler of freedom in the realm of governance. It is our freedom to trade, to learn, to be secure, and to our well-being as individuals, organisations, and as countries. Dr. Verma was hopeful that done well, its impact will be material, measurable, and transparent.

Discussions anD QA

is the governance of the data. The government is also trying to make transport and environment data open and available for public use. These organizations are internally trying to process the data to share it in the public domain. The private sector could also use the same platform to share their data for public use. On the concluding note, Dr.Verma said that open data would bring a different order of social development in the country with innovative business models and faster actions and ways of reaching a larger audience.

National Institute of Urban AffairsCore 4B, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi:110003Phone: (91-11)24617543, 24643284 (Extn.231)Fax:(91-11) 24617513website: www.niua.org